The Change and Chronology of Preceramic Mound-building Practices at the Cruz Verde Site in the Chicama Valley, Peru

Summary

Excavations in 2016 and 2017 at the Cruz Verde site which is located in the coastal area of the Chicama Valley, revealed a stratified record of preceramic mound-building practices. These practices are constituted by various mortuary contexts and are particularly noted for their use of architectural reconstruction, an activity repeated from around 4000 cal. BC ~1900 cal. BC divided into two phases, the CV-1 phase and the CV-2 phase. We conducted a stratigraphic examination of these contexts, and carried out radio carbon dating to further analyze the processes of constructing mound and its change over time. These analyses revealed that accumulation of food waste midden and embedded mortuary contexts caused the growing of mound volume in the CV-1 phase, and the abrupt change to the beginning of architecture construction on the mound: an activity of constructing a room and the reconstructions of floors and walls which led to the division of inside space in the CV-2 phase. These processes indicate that the monumentality of mounds gradually increased in the CV-1 phase as the mortuary and food waste accumulating practice, and the increased monumentality caused the change of the utilization of this place around 2800 cal. BC, in the CV-2 phase.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21816